Thousands of patients in Yorkshire were made to wait longer than one month for a GP appointment, analysis reveals, as doctors warn that their workload is spiralling while pressures on the NHS ramp up during the first week of winter.

A total of 3.1m appointments were held at the region’s 682 GP surgeries in October, NHS Digital figures show.

Figures for appointments at GP practices in Yorkshire have been released. Picture: PA Archive/PA Images.

While nearly 1.3m of those, some 41 per cent, took place on the same day as they were booked, about 187,000 patients were forced, or elected, to wait 28 days or longer before they saw a healthcare professional.

The second-highest figure, 599,000, almost one fifth of appointments, were attended within seven days of booking.

Statistics for the region are based on figures logged by practices that fall under NHS England North’s Yorkshire and Humber remit.

They come amid stark warnings from health bosses urging patients to ensure they choose the right care as winter pressures start to take their toll.

Today, one of the nation’s leading GPs has raised alarm over family doctors missing important patient details as winter bites.

Professor Helen Stokes-Lampard, chairwoman of the Royal College of GPs, warned doctors are now “worried” over what they could have missed.

It is set against a backdrop of the results from a new survey of more than 1,000 GPs working in England, which has found that 89 per cent of GPs feel their workload increases in winter compared to other times of the year.

Looking across the region, Leeds, owing to its size, held 459,000 GP appointments in October, the data shows.

Two-fifths took place on the same day as booking, but nearly 12 per cent of patients waited at least 22 days for an appointment.

In York, where 165,000 appointments were booked, one third were held on the same day.

Elsewhere, 222,000 appointments took place in Wakefield with 45 per cent – among the highest in the region – held on the day of booking.

In South Yorkshire, Sheffield practices fielded 331,200 appointments, and 47,000 patients waited between 15 and 28 days before being seen. Patients in Hambleton, Richmondshire and Whitby booked in for 77,553 appointments.

NHS England North declined to comment when contacted by The Yorkshire Post.

Trending

Investigation continues after body of man found next to Dunelm store in Halifax